fmd key points

Key points:

The industry says the detections warrant more spending in biosecurity measures

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said two detections of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) since December were confirmed by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in meat products declared and seized at airports.

A third sample was deemed inconclusive among the more than 280 samples tested for FMD.

The pork jerky, sausages and other pork products were collected by Department of Agriculture staff between December 3-16 last year and from January 21-February 3 this year.

Fragments of the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus were also detected in the meat of six of the December samples and 40 of the 283 samples taken in 2019.

Mr Littleproud said FMD was "considered the biggest threat to Australia's agriculture" and travellers that did not declare animal or plant products would face fines and possible court proceedings.

"The feeding of waste food to animals is illegal and it's illegal because of the risks to the health of those industries is immense," he said.

"In the UK in 2001, we had to slaughter six-and-a-half million animals as a consequence of someone doing exactly that, and in Australia it's estimated the cost of something like that would be in excess of $50 billion."

Calls for greater biosecurity investment

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Australian remains free from FMD and ASF, but Victorian Farmers' Federation president David Jochinke said the detections proved a greater investment was needed in biosecurity at all levels of government.

"The current penalties are no more than a slap on the wrist," Mr Jochinke said.

"They are an insult to Australia's food, beverage and tourism sectors, when a foot-and-mouth outbreak could cost Australia $50 billion over 10 years."

Mr Kompas also called for greater funding.

"Budgets are being stretched and you'll know when you go to the airport these days at international arrivals only a fraction of people are looked at," Mr Kompas said.

"It is a trust or honour system. When you actually start checking people you find a lot of occurrences of things that shouldn't come into Australia."

"If it were me, I'd spend much more money trying to make sure things stay out because the potential for damages are huge."